Thursday will bring a decent day to the east-central Ohio region. We’ll get a break from snow showers and gusty winds for a change and even get into some occasional sunshine today.
Temperatures will remain about ten degrees below average with most neighborhoods across the Tuscarawas Valley topping out at around 40 degrees or so this afternoon.
A cold front dips south across Ohio this evening and tonight and that may generate a few spotty snow showers late tonight. Any activity with the cold front should shut down by Friday morning. Most places will see a half inch or less of new snow out of this.
Chilly temperatures but a nice sunny day heads our way for Friday as high pressure takes over. Despite the sunshine temperatures will struggle on Friday and it will be difficult for us to do any better than the upper 30s for the high.
WEEKEND WEATHER
We remain dry Friday night ahead of a quick-moving little system that crosses just to our south on Saturday. The last few model runs have shown better agreement on the track and precipitation type with this system.
From what the models are spitting out this morning, most of the precipitation from this could stay along and south of I-70. However, a slight shift in the track to the north could also bring snow showers and a brief period of freezing rain Saturday morning.
NWS Pittsburgh mentions this in their morning discussion but keeps the freezing rain in Muskingum, Guernsey, Belmont, and Noble counties for now. I’ll continue to monitor model trends for any shift in the track.
For today’s forecast I’ll mention the chances for a period of sleet and wintry mixed precipitation Saturday morning with the possibility for rain in the afternoon.
Sunday will by far be the pick day of the weekend with hardly a cloud in the sky and afternoon temperatures right around average for mid March – 50/52 degrees.
NEXT WEEK
In all honesty, model trends for early next week are all over the place. Low pressure looks to develop over the Mississippi Valley along with an upper level disturbance tracking east. This may mean rain as a weaker low pressure system tracks across the Ohio Valley.
At this point we will need to keep rain showers (with perhaps a wintry mix) in the forecast the first half of the week but timing and intensity would be a crap shoot at best. But ANY forecast – no matter where you get it – will change in the coming days as computer models get a grip on how these next systems interact or fail to interact.
After another day of near normal temperatures on Monday, we will drop off again Tuesday and Wednesday with highs in the mid 40s Tuesday dropping back to the low 40s by Wednesday.
